The four canonical
strategies
of deception provide a rigorous and
mathematically
supportable theoretical basis for the analysis of a wide range of
problems involving deceptions and other forms of manipulating
information in survival contests. These strategies, rooted in Shannon's
information theory and game theory, have been shown to
provide a robust model for dealing with problems spanning biological,
social, computing and other systems.

Hypergames are meta-games
which permit modelling of deception and misperception. This area of
research has been largely dormant since the 1980s. Current research
involves exploration of the utility of hypergames in modelling social
systems, biological systems and the evolutionary
implications of hypergames.

Large social systems such often exhibit
unusually complex behaviours. Historical models for the latter include
Lanchester's exchange rate equations, or the application of Metcalfe's
Law to the modelling of networked systems.

Further basic research is
needed
to
fully quantify the properties of such systems.

HYPANT is a
hypergame simulator which implements the Fraser-Hipel algorithm for
hypergame analysis. The tool was implemented with the aim of producing
a
GPL code package suitable for use in more ambitious projects.